Colorado Kids Can't Afford to Lose the Summer

Guest Post by CAP Board Member, Jen Harris

Every June, a quiet crisis unfolds across Colorado. Schools close, working parents scramble, and hundreds of thousands of children find themselves without access to the enriching summer programs that could help them grow, stay safe, and stay on track. The data tell a stark story — and families are paying the price.

The Demand Is Real, and It's Growing

In 2019, more than 192,000 Colorado children wanted to be in a summer program but couldn't enroll — not because their families didn't care, but because programs were unavailable, unaffordable, or both. By 2020, 55% of Colorado families without a child in a summer program said they would have enrolled their child if one were available, up from 48% in 2009. That's not apathy. That's unmet demand.

Nationally, the picture is just as urgent. The 2025 America After 3PM report found that parents of 29.6 million children — more than half of all school-age youth in the country — want afterschool and summer programs for their kids. Of those, 22.6 million children remain without access. Three out of four children whose parents want programs simply don't have them.

What Families Are Actually Looking For

Colorado parents aren't asking for much. When surveyed, their top priorities for summer programs were:

• A safe environment (97%)

• Knowledgeable, caring staff (94%)

• Opportunities to build life skills (94%)

• A variety of activities and outdoor experiences (88% each)

• Physical activity (86%)

Parents who do have children enrolled in quality programs are overwhelmingly satisfied — 95% of Colorado parents rated their child's summer experience positively in 2019. That satisfaction is a signal: when programs exist and are accessible, families embrace them.

The Barriers Are Preventable

So why are so many Colorado kids missing out? The obstacles are familiar and fixable:

Cost tops the list, cited by 45% of families as a reason they couldn't enroll. The average weekly cost of a voluntary summer program runs around $193 — a real burden for working and middle-class families alike. Nationally, the 2025 data show that more than half of low- and middle-income families cite cost as a major barrier, roughly 10 percentage points higher than high-income families.

Location and transportation present another wall. About 18% of Colorado families cited location or transportation issues as barriers, and nationally, nearly half of parents say their child doesn't have a safe way to get to and from programs.

Program availability remains a persistent gap. One in eleven Colorado parents reported there were simply no summer programs available in their community. Forty-two percent of families nationally say the same about afterschool programs.

These aren't personal failures. They're policy gaps.

The Stakes for Working Families

Summer programs aren't just about kids — they're lifelines for families. Nationally, more than 9 in 10 parents with a child in a program say it helps them feel less stressed knowing their child is safe, and 82% say it allows them to keep their job or work more hours. Families with children enrolled in programs are 19 percentage points more likely to report a positive impact on their overall well-being compared to those without access.

For Colorado families where both parents work — or where a single parent is keeping the household afloat — the absence of summer programming isn't a convenience problem. It's an economic one. As one parent put it nationally: "The afterschool program allows me to work just a little bit more so I can make the money we need to do these activities and put food on the table."

The Equity Gap Is Widening

Perhaps most troubling is the growing divide between what high-income families can access and what everyone else can. By 2025, families in the highest income bracket were spending nine times as much on out-of-school time activities as families in the lowest bracket — up from five times as much in 2020. Higher-income children are more than twice as likely to participate in afterschool programs as low-income children.

If Colorado doesn't act to close this gap, summer becomes yet another arena where economic inequality compounds itself — where children born into less affluence fall further behind in skills, confidence, and opportunity each year.

Families Want Investment — and Support Is Bipartisan

The good news: Coloradans are ready to act. A full 90% of Colorado parents support public funding for summer learning opportunities — a significant increase from 80% in 2009. And this isn't a partisan issue. Support holds across Democrats (95%), Independents (92%), and Republicans (89%).

Families aren't asking for something radical. They're asking for what they already know works — programs that keep kids safe, help them grow, and give working families peace of mind. The evidence is on their side.

What Comes Next

Summer 2021 providers were already warning of critical shortfalls: 52% worried about reduced enrollment, 44% about staffing, and 82% about their program's long-term financial future. Those challenges haven't disappeared — they've deepened.

The path forward requires:

• Increased public funding at the state and local level to reduce cost barriers for low- and middle-income families

• Transportation solutions to make programs physically reachable

• Expanded program capacity in communities — especially rural and urban areas — where supply simply doesn't meet demand

• Investment in program staff to ensure quality and sustainability

Colorado children have 192,000 reasons to get this right. They are waiting for a summer that works for them — and their families are counting on it.

Data sourced from the Colorado After 3PM Summer 2021 Fact Sheet and the America After 3PM Fifth Edition: Lost Opportunity — Afterschool in Demand, But Out of Reach for Many (October 2025), published by the Afterschool Alliance.